Posts Tagged ‘wonder woman’

“The first responsibility of leadership is the creation of meaning.”—Warren Bennis. Welcome to the Sum, where I share my take on the meaning of sum of the week’s parts. I want your voice too. Leave comments here or @GloriaFeldt. It’s about power this week. Of course with me, every day of every week I’m obsessed with…

“The first responsibility of leadership is the creation of meaning.”—Warren Bennis. Welcome to the first Sum, where I’ll give my take on the meaning of the sum of the week’s parts. I want your voice too. Leave comments here or @GloriaFeldt. The Sum: This week it’s all #WonderWoman. And #WonderWomen. #WW for short. We’re all around.…

Wonder Woman: who she is has morphed many times during her seven decades of existence. Depending on who was in control of her image, and what role the prevailing culture wanted women to play in society, she has been a superhero and a boutique owner, her muscles and attire symbolic of strength and courage and of bombshell sexiness. This latest documentary being developed by filmmakers Kristy Guevara-Flanagan & Kelcey Edwards, is called The History of the Universe as Told by Wonder Woman. It’s a project worth supporting–which you can do here.

I love this video artist Linda Stein made about the history and social significance of the female super heroine created by psychologist William Moulton Marston (inventor of the lie detector test, perhaps the precursor of Wonder Woman’s ability to know who was telling the truth–or who knows, maybe she could tell who was lying because she was a mom) to be the antidote to Superman, the epitome of male power over others. Wonder Woman instead never kills, she uses her power to to help, protect, stop the bad things from happening. Here’s Stein’s intro:

How does Wonder Woman do it? She is able to stop the bad guys—even convince them to reform—without ever killing! Her gender-bending strength and power is matched only by her compassion in seeking peace and justice. The question, CAN WONDER WOMAN CRA-AC-CK GENDER STEREOTYPES? is paramount as this icon and superhero confronts the sexism prevalent at the time of her creation in 1941 as well as today.

So how does Wonder Woman do it? What lessons can we learn from her today?

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